


Silent Guide

by Totalspiffage



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, blood and violence in one teeny bit, mention of zevwarden
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-17
Updated: 2015-10-17
Packaged: 2018-04-26 18:43:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5015941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Totalspiffage/pseuds/Totalspiffage
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A young mage Surana meets a spirit of Choice in the Fade who takes a liking to her. Little does she know how important this spirit will be in her future.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Silent Guide

**Author's Note:**

> Spirit!Possessed Warden! I've seen a few things about possessed protags (us playing the part of the "spirit" as we guide them) and thought hey what if it's a spirit of choice that gives them all these options. Just a few small scribbles about that.

  
“Enchanter Wynne?” A young apprentice, no more than eight, approached the elder enchanter with a soft voice. She was a young elf, her pointed ears poking through her messy red locks, her eyes round and grey, looking at Wynne with curiosity and apprehension.

“Yes, my child?”

Surana, she recalled. She hadn’t cried at all when she arrived, and she knew nothing of being a mage before her arrival. Her parents had willingly given her up, the templars had said.

“I heard you talk about spirits today,” the girl said simply. Wynne wondered why that would merit her conversation.

“Yes? Did you have a question?” Talk of spirits was a little controversial, especially in front of everyone. Her course on spirit healing was dangerous, but it was necessary to train new healers.

The girl nodded and looked around, her eyes scanning the room, checking the distance of the templars. She was just a child. It struck Wynne suddenly how much fear was drilled into the young girl’s head already.

“I have a friend,” she said, quietly, “I think. I don’t want it to be-,” she broke off, and Wynne nodded, understanding.

“Yes. It can be difficult to discern the good from the bad in the Fade sometimes. What are they like?”

The elf paused, frowning, “At first, it watched me. Then, when I made fire at home, I cried a lot in my dream and it came closer.”

“Does it talk to you?” If this girl was plagued by demons already, it was vital to know.

“Sometimes. That night, it told me things I could do. I think… I think it was trying to make me feel better. I was sad,” the girl looked down, “I wanted to run away. It said I could, but it would be hard. It said if I came here, I could learn. I wouldn’t be as dangerous. It said it might help if I _chose_ rather than just went along with things.”

Wynne blinked. A spirit telling a mage to come to the circle? “Has it spoken to you recently?”

“Yes. I’ve been learning to read. It’s hard. I wanna stop sometimes, but in my dreams it tells me to keep going. It wouldn’t help me in the future if I couldn’t read. It says I need it,” the girl bit her lip and her hands wrung together.

“It sounds like a spirit, from what I can tell. Has it asked for anything from you in return?”

She shook her head, dark red hair swaying. She had dirt on her nose, Wynne noticed, smiling a little.

“Could I be like you? Heal?”

The child looked at her, eyes wide, and Wynne suddenly felt her curious spirit lingering nearby, just past the veil. She was in good hands. Perhaps this spirit would help her heal, someday. When she was harrowed.

“We’ll see, child. I think you are safe. If anything changes, tell me right away.”

The girl smiled and nodded before running back to the apprentice quarters.

* * *

 

Years later, Arwydd Surana found herself standing in the Fade, with a familiar spirit by her side.

“You’re being harrowed?” Choice said, an ethereal echo coming out almost before the actual words did. Arwydd nodded. The spirit's voice had always been a comfort to her, breathy and sure, even when discussing hypotheticals.

“I guess this is it, the big test. If I don’t get through this, either I’ll be here too long or you’ll never see me  again,” she’d meant it as a joke, but her dry sense of humour didn’t get through to the spirit. Choice shifted its form, emulating something humanoid, but milk-white and leaving tendrils of smoke in its wake. It liked to choose lots of ways to look, it said once.

“You will be fine, please don’t despair.” It fell into step beside her as she moved deeper into the Fade.

Arwydd laughed. Spirits. Choice was her friend. Luckily, the Templars couldn’t see in here.

* * *

 

She’d never been wounded like this. Her hands were numb, her blood pooled, sticky as she felt the darkspawn approach. Thinking was too much. This was it, she thought. Dying, bleeding out as monsters tear us apart.

_Help_ , she begged, trapped within her mind. _Someone, please._ She tried in vain to connect to her mana, just barely pushing through the veil. Consciousness fled her, and she sunk into the sweet embrace of the Fade.

Choice curled around her, ever-present and comforting, wrapping itself around Arwydd. She was in some form of the tower, books piled around her as if she’d awoken from a nap during a study session.

“I’m sorry,” Choice said, sounding softer than usual.

“For what, Choice?”

“I made a decision. You may not like it.”

“You made a decision without asking me, for once?” Arwydd smiled sadly. She couldn’t quite remember… Was she dead?

“You’re not dead. I’ve decided it.” Choice curled tighter, in a crude imitation of a hug.

“Oh? And how would you decide that, my dear spirit?”

Choice unfurled itself, settling into an elven form beside her. A mirror image. “I helped you. It’s hard to help, but you reached out and no magic came. I followed the path where your magic goes.”

Arwydd looked at Choice’s form- a pure white, ghostly form of her hair, her braids, her ears…

She gasped, “You mean I-”

“We have joined, Arwydd.”

They were both silent for a moment. Arwydd looked down at her hands, and imagined how they fell to the cold, stone floor, covered in blood.

“I will help you,” Choice said, its form dissolving again into a nebulous cloud, “You have many choices to make, I will help.”

“Choice- don’t spirits become demons in our world? Does that mean I’ll- I’ll become a demon?”

Choice swirled lazily, “You and I have always coexisted. It will simply be more permanent. If we are at odds, it may be hard. We will have to watch for Pride.”

Arwydd nodded, “Thank you for telling me, Choice. I'm still... scared about this."

"I don't wish to become a demon any more than you do. If that happens, we will both be lost."

* * *

 

_Touch that_ , Choice would suggest, and Arwydd’s hand would reach out. It was hard to say no to the spirit, hard to tell what exactly was Choice, but she found a rhythm with the incessant list of daily actions and decisions, improving every day at picking choices that would work for them all. What food to eat, which side to sleep on, where to take their party next… who died and who lived.

When she met Jowan again, pallid and starving within the Redcliffe dungeon, she was glad Choice was there.

_You can kill him, set him free, have him atone_ … “You will atone by attempting to help us undo this mess,” Arwydd’s words left with confidence she would never have had before. Choice’s part of her consciousness seemed… happy to help her with these things. There was a happy buzz in her mind where Choice lived, always ready to counsel her and keep her going.

The road was lonely, but choice warmed her thoughts at night, and the nightmares seemed to quiet under the spirit’s influence.

* * *

 

This is a lapse in judgement, Choice complained, as Arwydd busied herself with kissing the handsome assassin she’d saved.

Shut up, Choice, Arwydd growled at the spirit. Choice disapproved, but Zevran’s hands moved and suddenly, Choice quieted.

Choice approved later. But perhaps that was a side effect of experiencing the mortal body’s rather swaying arguments for engaging in a _lapse_.

**Author's Note:**

> Just snippets, didn't feel like making it a series, but yeah!
> 
> totalspiffage.tumblr.com


End file.
